Representative Benjamin F. Elbert View All Years

HON. BENJAMIN F. ELBERT.

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee appointed to prepare resolutions commemorating the life, character and public service of Benjamin F. Elbert, beg leave to submit the following report:

WHEREAS, an overruling Providence has removed from the activities of life Honorable Benjamin F. Elbert, an esteemed member of the House of Representatives in the Thirteenth General Assembly,

Resolved, That in his death his family has lost a devoted husband and an affectionate father, the State, an able and patriotic citizen.

Resolved further, That these resolutions be made a part of the records of this House.

Benjamin Ficklin Elbert was born in Van Buren county, Iowa, was identified with the interests of the State from his infancy, and he remained its honored citizen until his death. He witnessed its development from a scattered frontier settlement into the proudest commonwealth in all the American Union. He saw its population, its wealth, its manufactures, its mining industries, its agricultural products, its educational facilities, multiply and remultiply into colossal magnitude, and his latest glance at the beloved State with whose history he was so conspicuously connected, revealed her at the very climax of her national prestige and power. It is difficult for us of this generation to understand the tremendous obligation we owe to the stalwart pioneers who with undaunted courage and intrepid spirit endured the perils of privation and adventure necessary to subdue the savagery of the wilderness, and to appropriate its natural resources to the purpose of civilization. There were giants in those primitive days, and one of the strongest, ablest and worthiest of them was B. F. Elbert. He had no ambition for the preferments of public station, but his countrymen compelled his election to this body, and while here he discharged every duty with unqualified acceptability to his constituents.

For thirty years he was engaged most strenuously in business activities, and his success was so uniform and phenomenal that for the past decade he has been one of the most influential private citizens in Iowa. His laborious life is ended, and it is modest eulogy to say that all his days were days of usefulness, and all his paths were paths of honor.

N. E. KENDALL,

E. H. ENGLISH,

F. M. EPPERSON,